Images & a little footage from the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl featuring FSU & OK State as well as a brief interview with OK St's Richard Soergel.

Background:
Game organizers expected the Bluegrass Bowl to be an annual event in Louisville, starting with the 1958 contest. The first choices for the game were the Kentucky Wildcats and the Alabama Crimson Tide, which went 5–4–1 in its first season under Bear Bryant, who had previously coached at Kentucky for eight seasons. The Wildcats, who had received poor treatment from the Louisville crowd during a 51–0 win over Hawaii at Cardinal Stadium in their season opener, turned down the bid, with the team's lettermen voting 18–12 against. Kentucky's players voting to turn down bowl bids was nothing new: they said no to the Gator Bowl in 1953, despite a 7–2–1 record in Bryant's final season in Lexington, and again in 1954 after going 7–3. Alabama also declined; Oklahoma State and Florida State accepted invitations.

Bowl organizers successfully negotiated a national television contract with American Broadcasting Company (ABC), with a 100-mile blackout. A crowd of 15,000, less than half capacity, was expected for the inaugural game. Tickets were priced at $6.50 each, though due to unenthusiastic demand they were being sold for $1.50 on the day of the game. Parking cost 25 cents.

ABC's coverage of the otherwise forgettable Bluegrass Bowl was notable for two reasons: it was the last broadcast of Harry Wismer and the first national telecast to feature Howard Cosell. It was also the first-ever national broadcast of a Florida State football game. Due to the cold weather, the press covering the game deserted the windowless press box and all crowded into a single enclosed, heated room with windows for the game.

Richard W. "Dick" Soergel, a member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, has a special place in the history of Oklahoma State University sports. He was the last three-sport athlete at OSU. He quarterbacked the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl championship team, played and lettered under legendary basketball coach Henry Iba and was member of the 1959 NCAA National Champion baseball team. In this oral history interview excerpt from the O-STATE Stories oral history collection, Soergel looks back on the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl.